Driver Distraction by Advertising

To investigate the distracting effects of static and video advertising on the driving task, a study was conducted using TRL's car driving simulator and its integrated eye tracking system. This has the benefit of allowing drivers to undertake potentially unsafe tasks in complete safety and that driving is conducted in controlled conditions enabling detailed analysis of both driving and visual behaviour.

Two simulated driving routes were created and 48 participants, mixed by age and gender, were recruited to drive each route in both directions. The simulated routes were built to appear representative of the London hinterland and as such included a relatively high degree of visual complexity and a suitably representative environment for the testing of roadside advertising.

The simulator study revealed numerous interesting differences in behaviour across the experimental factors. When compared to behaviour when passing static adverts, participants in the study:

• Spent longer looking at video adverts
• Glanced at video adverts more frequently
• Tended to show greater variation in lateral lane position with video adverts
• Braked harder on approach to video adverts
• Drove more slowly past video adverts.

This combination of results indicates that video adverts caused a significantly greater impairment to driving performance than that caused by static adverts. There was a tendency to drift into the offside lane or onto the nearside kerb, greatly increasing the risk of collision and/or injury. As shown by questionnaire results, participants tended to be aware that their driving was more impaired by the presence of video adverts than with static adverts.

For more information on this project, please contact Andi Flint on +44 (0)1344 770871 or aflint@trl.co.uk